Assessing Cows’ Welfare: weighing the Cow in a Milking Robot

Four strain gauge balances were installed into a milking robot after careful inspection of the positions of the legs of all 40 cows from a herd. It was found that 90% of the cows would have all the legs on the balances at least during every second milking. The balances were connected to a four channel amplifier and the data were targeted to a personal computer using a dedicated computer program. From the data, the dynamic weight or load of each leg can be measured. The average weight, the weight variation of each leg, the total weight, the number of kicks, the frequency of kicks and the total time in the milking robot were calculated. The changes in values of each cow were followed and the leg health of cows was observed. Preliminary analysis of the data gives evidence that limb and hoof disorders can be detected with the system. It is also possible to analyse the step and kick behaviour of the cow during milking and during the different stages of milking, washing, milking and disconnecting. In this way it is also possible to monitor the activity level of the cow and how it changes.